Ethernet technology has been widely accepted and used in many applications. As specified in IEEE 802.3 series of specifications, various data rates may be supported at distances up to 100 meters. There are many applications with longer range requirements that may use multiple Ethernet link segments for establishing a connection between two nodes. In addition to range requirements, other networking constraints may result in multiple Ethernet link segments between two communication nodes. As an example application, a connection between one or more mobile base stations and a center node may include multiple Ethernet link segments.
In certain applications, for example, connecting a mobile base station to a center node, there may also be a tight clock synchronization requirement between two data communication nodes. When multiple Ethernet link segments are used to connect the base station to the center node, each link segment may be on a different clock frequency reference, violating synchronization requirement between the mobile base station (e.g., an end node) and the center node.